Marvellous Monthly Marketing Tips

In the studio this week... The websites are almost live for MIB Music!

2009-11-02T08:06:00+00:00

I've been bursting to show you the website makeovers for MIB Music and they're very almost live so I thought I'd give you a sneak preview. And so here's MIB Music's website makeover...

It's very pink! There are still a few tweaks to make and a few bugs to resolve, but I love it, and so does the client. It makes a much, much better splash than what she has at the moment (the grey website below)...

What do you think?

Do you really need a twitter strategy?

2009-10-31T09:49:09+00:00

I was chatting with a client yesterday and somehow we got on to twitter. "I still haven't put together my twitter strategy" he said. And I thought... twitter strategy? Do I have a twitter strategy? Do I even need a twitter strategy?

So how about you? Do you have a twitter strategy for your business?

For those of you that haven't stumbled upon the delights of twitter yet, twitter provides you with the opportunity to connect, build relationships and share your expertise with millions of people out there in just 140 characters. It's a bit like a permanent Facebook status feed!

Everyone has their own agenda when it comes to twitter. Some will use it to chat to their favourite celebrity (and I have to be honest, I'm not immune to the lure of chatting to the Home Show's George Clarke!), others use it to chat to friends and others use it for business. I have to say, I tend to use it for all three because my life is more than my business...

So if you're using twitter for business, do you need a strategy?

My gut reaction is absolutely not! But you do need to give it some consideration. There are those who think numbers are everything, who sign up to all manner of schemes to get followers. They then spend all of their time trying to "push" visitors to their site or get them to sign up for their "free reports". Now I have no objection to that in moderation - but I mean moderation! I'll tend to tweet about my workshops once or twice a month, the rest of the time I try to add value or actually interact with the people. Because it's all about the people for me.

I do consider what I tweet about because people will form an impression of me, and so I try to stick by the mantra "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". And I try and get a balance between work @fionahumberston the marketing and branding person (I'm loathe to use the word Guru or Expert: let's let the readers decide eh?) and @fionahumberston the mum of two, wife and jam making/ baking/ gardening enthusiast! Why? Because I'm a real, 3D person, not just a celeb hunter or a workaholic (although that said I am writing this on a saturday ;-( ).

So I guess I do have a twitter strategy of sorts. But ask me for targets, plans, goals and a file on my laptop called "twitter strategy" and I can't give it to you. My twitter strategy is called "a spoonful of common sense". How about yours?

In the studio this week... Initial concepts for the Sea Deli

2009-10-09T16:05:00+01:00

The Sea Deli has been one of the most fun projects we've worked on all year. The concepts below are for a new deli/ cafe that's going to be opening in a Devon seaside resort. Catriona, one of the owners, asked us to come up with an identity that reflected the high quality food they are going to be serving and was also sympathetic to the seaside location.

We had a lot of fun brainstorming this business, with plenty of ideas for the cafe and serving the kids lunches (in buckets and spades!) as well as for the logo and brand identity itself. Below are the three initial concepts we sent to Catriona. We're still in the refining stage (she prefers option two) but I'm just so excited about them all that I had to share them with you.

Enjoy! (and do let me know what you think, I always love to hear from you.)

OPTION ONE

The faded charm of the seaside with a crab for the logo to reflect the location and specialities of the sea deli.

OPTION TWO (and Catriona's favourite)

Bold, modern and funky with some fab nautical illustrations that could be carried throughout the deli as well as on the packaging.

OPTION THREE (and my personal favourite)

I love the fonts we've used for this one and love the colours. I think they're friendly, laidback and fun: just what you want from a seaside deli!

In the studio this week... A new corporate identity for UGO UNI

2009-10-08T15:42:00+01:00

I did promise you that we'd been creating a lot of new brands over the last couple of weeks, and today I'd like to show off UGO UNI's new branding. Sue Chamberlain set up the company six months ago to take advantage of her expertise at helping students select and get into the Universities of their choice. She realised that she had a lot to offer in terms of helping people navigate the minefield that is the UCAS form, and so UGO UNI was formed.

Sue initially used her own logo, which was a combination of black and red in I think Arial. These are incredibly harsh colours and psychologically speaking quite aggressive. Not especially the impression you'd want to portray! Instead, we learned from Sue that she wanted to communicate professionalism, reassurance and organisation, and so we selected colours that communicated those things.

Here is Sue's stationery.

The website is just being built and I'll post a link to that as soon as it's live, but you can get a sneak preview here...

Starfish Greathearts Foundation Christmas Campaign Artwork

2009-10-08T11:05:00+01:00

Here is the flyer for the Starfish Greathearts Foundation Christmas campaign. We've designed it as part of our pro bono charity work and kept very much within the rigorous brand guidelines.

What do you think?

In the studio this week... A new identity for Cobham Pilates

2009-10-06T15:26:00+01:00

We've had such a fun month full of designing some really great corporate identities. On Monday I shared with you our new identity for MIB Music Ltd, and today I'd like to show you the new identity for Cobham Pilates.

Donna Portyemour runs Cobham Pilates from a dedicated studio in the town centre. Unlike many other pilates classes, which are run from Church Halls and Reading Rooms, Cobham Pilates has it's own dedicated studio and Donna prides herself on her professionalism. She's learned her craft from one of the best pilates teachers in the world, and she needed an identity that communicated that. We've worked with Donna for several years and designed her website and developed her identity as far as we could within the constraints of the logo that she has at the moment (designed by another company). But, as is the theme at the moment, Donna realised that her current corporate identity wasn't doing her business justice and could be holding her back.

Here's Donna's current logo.

I have to say, we've always found it quite frustrating to work with because it's just so enormous. The 'cp' shape on the left takes up so much space that to get the words Cobham Pilates legible you end up using half the design space just to fit the logo in. So creating something that was altogether more compact was certainly at the top of my own personal agenda!

Added to that, when we've worked with Donna in the past she has always talked about pilates being about strength, and this doesn't come across in this logo. The font is a bit too hippyish and the shape on the left (apart from being annoying to work with!) is too soft and flowy. So we needed to come up with something that was stronger, appealed to both men and women, and (you guessed it!) looked more professional.

Here's one of our initial concepts.

The colours are much more harmonious. None of that soft blue with harsh black! They work together very well (and psychologically speaking say the right things to her customers as well). The logo itself is much more compact and the fonts suggest strength.

What do you think? After much tweaking with colours we're pretty much back to these original colours and have started work on the website redesign. As soon as that's done you'll be one of the first to know!

In the studio this week... MIB Music Ltd get a makeover

2009-10-05T21:10:00+01:00

I've been just bursting to tell you about this 'brandover' for quite some time now and am delighted to reveal the results to you.

Sera Golding runs MIB Music Ltd: a collection of fabulous bands which specialise in playing live events: corporate functions, parties and so on. Sera has been a long time customer of Guildford printing.com and has always designed her own artwork and just had us print it. Like many small businesses at the moment, Sera realised she needs to capitalise on her success and get serious about her business image. MIB Music Limited is the booking agency that manages several of Sera's bands, and she asked us to create new identities for MIB Music Limited, MIB Band and Undercover Superstars (more on the Undercover Superstars later...).

You can view MIB's promotional video below to get a taste for how fab they are...

Feeling inspired? On to the identity then...

Although MIB's current identity is one of the more professional looking self-designed identities we've seen, it lacked the polish and sparkle that I knew we could give Sera. Her brief was that MIB Music Ltd came across as professional, impactful, fun and energetic, but without looking flaky. Sera and her team pride themselves on their professionalism and timekeeping, and this needed to come across in the design.

Here's what we did for them.

And here's what they have at the moment.

I'm really looking forward to showing you the new website in a couple of weeks. As you can see, what they have at the moment isn't offensive, but our new identity just has so much more sparkle, girl power (without being too girly) and energy. Wait till you see the website!

In the studio this week... A banner for the Guildford Flames

2009-10-05T14:55:00+01:00

I've got to be honest, it was the client feedback more than the artwork that prompted me to share this artwork with you, I'm a sucker for a great testimonial! but here goes...

One of our clients, Hi Spec Electrics needed a banner for a Guildford Flames tournament, and asked us to step in to help. Here's the finished artwork:

And most importantly, here's what Jen, of Hi Spec Electrics had to say about it:

"I completely forgot to email you on our return from Coventry for the Ice-hockey finals weekend in April to say thanks, and let you know just how well received the poster that you designed for us went down (or up, as the case actually was!!). I have never known a poster actually be photographed as it is being put up, and cheered!! According to my brother, who has more 'friends' than I do on facebook - it was all over the place. A couple of people asked about the printing.com logo too, so hopefully you have at least a couple of people who have been in contact as a result.

Thanks again for the fab design work. It was and is appreciated.

Will be in touch with any of our future printing and design needs."

New video post: how anyone can design a fab looking leaflet!

2009-10-05T10:37:00+01:00

Great design isn't about what software you use, it's about flair, creativity and an understanding of what makes good design. Now you might not be born with any of those things, but an appreciation of good design is absolutely essential if you want to make sure that you maximise on the potential of your business brand.

Lots of you commented on my blog How to turn a leaflet from drab to fab, and so I thought I'd make you a quick video (less than 5 minutes) so that you can see how the principles of design work in reality.

Enjoyed this? Join me for a Graphic Design for the Uninitiated workshop on 22nd October and discover how to make these principles work for your business.

12 mistakes that most small businesses make when they exhibit: download your free eBook today!

2009-10-05T09:23:00+01:00

Most small businesses pour thousands of pounds into exhibitions every year and fail to walk away with a single client. And yet when they're done properly exhibitions can help you build your database, boost your brand awareness and develop relationships with your clients. I've used exhibitions as a fundamental part of my marketing plan to add hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of revenue you to my business.

My new book, Exhibit! The SME's guide to using exhibitions to grow your business is all about showing you, in simple terms, how you can do the same. And you can download a FREE sample chapter right here. Just click on the link or the book cover to sign up for your free sample chapter.